


Fox Season

by Queequeg0323



Category: The X-Files
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-15
Updated: 2020-11-15
Packaged: 2021-03-10 04:06:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,785
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27567967
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Queequeg0323/pseuds/Queequeg0323
Summary: During Mulders death during season 8, Scully befriends a fox. Post This is Not Happening, pre Deadalive.
Relationships: Fox Mulder/Dana Scully
Comments: 1
Kudos: 13





	Fox Season

**Author's Note:**

> Slight warning for references to depression.

Exhausted. Tired. Hopeless. Impossibly alone. 

That’s how she feels. It’s been a week since they buried her partner. Her best friend. Her lover. 

The pain in her chest is unrelenting, her heart broken, never to be put back together. She worries constantly about how it will affect the development of their child, however the shock is still too fresh for her to consider how she can move on from this grief and depression she feels. 

She hates the irony of her body growing a new life while her heart can’t let go of the life lost. This was supposed to be a joyful time in their lives. Their dream of creating a family, a child finally reached. But, instead she is alone. 

She exhales slowly as she walks the path along the potomac. A route her and Mulder frequented often. She’s been doing that a lot lately. Going to places of sentimental value for them in a futile attempt to feel a connection to him. However, she can’t help the overwhelming loneliness she feels venturing out to these places without him by her side.

The depression and pregnancy have left her with a chronic exhaustion and before long, she takes a seat on a bench to rest. She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. She relishes in the slight bite from the cold winter air as it hits her lungs. As she opens her eyes and looks out on the river, she notices a flash of orange movement in her peripheral vision. When she turns her head to the left to check, she does a double-take when she sees the orange movement was a small fox now sitting perched on a small boulder, head cocked looking right at her. 

She gasps and moves her hand to cover her mouth while her eyes fill with tears. This fox does not seem sly, nor restless. Instead he seems curious, inquisitive, and guarding as he regards her. They share eye contact and she feels a sudden calming presence. 

Despite her skeptical prerogative, she has had an array of experiences related to death and a seeming connection between the spirit and living world. She has found that in some cases there are no such things as coincidences. In this moment, she takes it as a sign and lets her tears fall freely. Softly sobbing to herself on this park bench while a fox watches her intently. 

During their partnership, she did not refer to him by his given name very often. She respected his request to be called solely by his surname despite the fact that she noticed others had the privilege to choose. It was not until their relationship became more intimate that she finally broached the subject with him. 

_It was a cold January morning while they spooned for warmth in his previously neglected bed. Their sexual relationship was still new, however she finally felt comfortable to ask him a question that had been on her tongue for years._

_“Can I ask you a question?” She asked softly._

_“Hmm?” He responded from behind her, pulling her closer with the arm draped over her abdomen._

_“Why do you make me call you Mulder? I mean, I know you don’t like your first name, but that doesn’t stop other people from using it. A few people use it quite often and you never really seem to have an issue.”_

_He let out a deep sigh, knowing she was referring to Diana Fowley, the recently deceased, but constant elephant in the room. She turned around in his embrace to face him._

_“You know that those people are aware that I prefer to go by my last name, but I can’t really stop them from referring to me by whatever.”_

_“I suppose, but what about the whole ‘I even made my parents call me Mulder’ thing you told me years ago. That was complete bullshit.” She says and he can’t help but chuckle at her bluntness._

_“Yeah, you’re right. It was.” He relents._

_“So?” She prompts. “What gives?”_

_He sighs softly again. “You want the honest truth?” She nods softly, her head resting on his bicep while his other hand mindlessly strokes her hair. “When you were first assigned to me, I thought you were there to spy on me. I didn’t trust you and I sure as hell wasn’t going to let you call me Fox. But, then as time went on and our trust built, I began to fall for you.” He admitted._

_“That night, when I told you my parents called me Mulder it was a deflection. A way to keep you at arms length. I reasoned with myself that if we only referred to each other by our last names, it somehow would prevent us from getting any closer than partners. It didn’t really make any sense and obviously didn’t really work. After a while the use of our last name almost felt like a pet name. I don’t know, it just felt right.”_

_She smiled, understanding completely. She nuzzled his nose with hers before moving back slightly to look at him again._

_“But, what about now? You know I don’t really have any issues with you calling me Dana. How would you feel if I called you Fox?”_

_He sighed again, “I don’t know. You can call me anything you want, it’s just…” He drifts off, averting her gaze._

_“What?” She gently lifts his chin, forcing him to return her eye contact. “What is it?” She asks, voice close to a whisper._

_“It’s just that Fox is a loser.”_

_“What do you mean?” She furrows her brows at him._

_“Fox was this guy I was before I met you. He was a total loser. He was needy and let everybody walk all over him. He was nerdy and was ostracised and bullied by his peers his whole life. He sought love from toxic, manipulative partners. He seeked attention and approval from anyone who would give it to him to make up for the lack of love he had growing up. His parents resented and ignored him. He was a coward that stood paralyzed while his sister was abducted right in front of him. He was never good enough.” He paused and took a deep breath, Scully blinked back tears, her heart aching while he recounted his life. “But Mulder,” he continued. “Mulder, doesn’t let people close enough to hurt him. He has relationships with 1-900 numbers and a video collection to avoid the pain of real life connections. He’s arrogant and has a false sense of bravado and confidence. He’s committed his life to seeking out the paranormal and giving voices to people who would otherwise be ignored and labelled crazy. Sure he’s still ostracised and he’s called spooky, but he has a noble quest. Spending every minute of his life looking for his sister and avenging what was done to her. Don’t get me wrong though, he’s every bit a loser and as unlovable as Fox. But, as he was once told by Eddie Van Blundht, he’s a loser by choice.”_

_He pauses again, seeming to choose his next words._

_“That was the man I chose to become when I found the x-files, when my wife left me, and when a gorgeous redhead was sent to debunk my work.”_

_“What about now?” she asked, clearing her throat. “Maybe that’s how you felt back then. But neither of those men are in this bed with me right now. You are in no way a loser. You are so unbelievably loveable that it hurts.” She jokes. “So, who are you now?”_

_“I’m yours.” He says automatically._

_“Mulder,” she scoffs._

_“No, really. It’s a bit confusing, actually. I feel as though, I’ve evolved in my time with you. I told you once you made me a whole person, I wasn’t lying. I have never felt so secure, safe, loved, and complete. Like, I said you calling me Mulder just feels right at this point, but I don’t feel the way about him as I used to. I think I’m realizing that a name is just a name. It doesn’t change who I am really.”_

_A tear rolls down her cheek at his confession. She feels full with the love she feels for him. He brushes the tear away from cheek with the pad of his thumb, smiling softly at her._

_“A rose by any other name and all that stuff?” She teases._

_“Exactly.” He chuckles. They gaze at each other for a moment. Expressing their love and affection through nothing more than a warm look._

_“I think,” she starts after a beat. “That you should take back the power that your name has over you. Obviously, it’s an… unconventional name, but that doesn’t have to be a bad thing.”_

_“Help me.” He whispers._

_“You are Fox William Mulder. Brilliant profiler. Believer in the paranormal. The best partner an FBI agent could ask for. You’re caring, you have a heart of gold and you are so fucking passionate. You make me feel so loved, so appreciated and so equal. I am so incredibly proud of everything you do. You make me want to work harder. I love that we get to help people and solve problems together.” She pauses for a moment, in a sultry tone she continues, “and you are a tender lover, Fox.”_

_He smiles and she feels his cock twitch against her thigh. She raises her eyebrow and gives him a questioning look._

_“What can I say?” he defends. “It’s been a long time since you called me that.”_

_“You like that?” She asks and_

_He nods. “Honestly, I would love the way anything would sound coming from your beautiful mouth.”_

_She sighs. “You are so sexy, Fox. You don’t know what you do to me.” She mewls before kissing him deeply._

_He pushes her shoulder gently so that she’s laying flat on her back while he hovers over her, resting himself in between her thighs. She feels his desire for her growing as their tongues slide against each other, fighting for dominance._

_“Make love to me, Fox.” She whispers against his lips. He groans deep in his throat before grinding himself against her center._

_Slowly and sensually they undress each other and make love to each other. Unrushed, they spend their rest of the morning making each other gasp and moan. They take their time, worshiping each other's bodies and making their love known through their desires. When they are sated, panting and holding each other closely, they share a tender kiss. She smiles at him hoping that he understands just how much affection she holds for him. While words seem inadequate, she still tells him what she feels in her heart,_

_“I love you, Fox.”_

_“I love you so much, Dana.”_

The memory begins to fade as she swipes away the last of her tears. It is at this moment that she realizes that the sun has set. The fox has still not moved from it’s spot on the boulder, and despite not wanting to, she decides it’s best that she starts her journey home before it gets too dark. With a deep breath and one last lingering look to the fox, she rises from the bench and walks down the path towards her car, feeling slightly lighter than she did when she arrived. 

\---

Over the course of the next few weeks, she continued to visit the same bench. Every time she would sit down, the fox would exit from a nearby bush to sit upon the boulder and gaze at her. She would talk to her late lover, update him on her life and tell him how much she missed him. Oftentimes, she would cry, letting out her grief and frustrations, somehow feeling safer as the fox watched over her. It was in this space that she felt the most connected to him. More than in their office, in his apartment, or at his grave. While she did feel him in those places, it was on this bench, with this fox that she felt she could really communicate with him. 

As the weeks passed, it became slightly easier to think of him. Her belly was also expanding with the life of their unborn son. A son. She found out that they would be having a little boy. She was over half way through her pregnancy but the pain of losing her lover was still fresh, it hurt to plan ahead. Though her mother tried gently nudging her into preparing for the birth, she was reluctant. She felt a certain betrayal to Mulder getting excited about their child. Especially when her mother asked her if she thought of names. 

A name for their child. He should be here to argue with her over trending names versus family names. As she rubs her belly and looks over to the fox, she is reminded of a conversation she had with him years ago. 

_“What kind of name is Fox, anyway?” She asked out of the blue. He nearly choked on his sunflower seed. He turned in the driver's seat to face her, averting his attention from the wind screen. They had been doing a surveillance assignment for the past four hours. They had only been working with each other for almost a year, and to say this question was random would be an understatement and testament to how the mind wonders with lack of stimulation._

_“Excuse me?” He laughs._

_“Sorry! I didn’t mean it like that.” She tried to recover. “I just mean, how did your parents come up with such a name?” He turns his attention back to the building they are supposed to be monitoring, he blushes slightly at the question. They didn’t often delve into personal subjects, often keeping things professional._

_“I don’t know. I’ve heard variations of stories over the years. From my mom encountering a friendly fox while she was pregnant with me to my dad believing that assigning such a name would give me the personality traits of the animal. None of them hold any truth though. They’ve made up more reasons that I could name.”_

_“So, you don’t know the actual reason they chose that name?” She asked, incredulously._

_“Well, no.” he turned back towards her. “I have my theories though.”_

_“Such as?” she prompted._

_“You ever heard the song ‘A boy named Sue’ by Johnny Cash?” He asked straight faced._

_“The father names his son Sue before leaving to help make the boy strong since he wouldn’t be there to help him.” He nodded and gestured with his hands to say ‘there you have it’. She laughed at this. “Oh, Mulder.” she crooned._

_“It didn’t really work though.” He shook his head self-deprecating. Not mentioning his other theory that he was given the impossible name Fox to help organizations such as the syndicate keep tabs on him._

_“No,” she continued to laugh. “You are not the type to fight anyone who looks at him wrong or shoot his own father.” She joked._

_“Not really.” He agreed. They both kept their attention on the building, letting silence fill the car for a moment._

_“What about William?” She asked._

_“What do you mean?” He furrowed his brow, returning his gaze to her while she continued to look at the building._

_“Your middle name is William, right?” He nodded. “William is such a nice, normal name. Why not just go by William?”_

_“I don’t know. William is a family name. It’s a nice name, but it’s just never really felt right for me. I don’t think it really suits me.”_

_She turned towards him again and studied him for a moment._

_“You’re right. It doesn’t suit you.” She said with finality. “I do have a soft spot for that name though. It’s also a family name for me.” She admitted quietly._

_“What about you?” He asked after a moment. “Dana Katherine, you’re the third child in a family, does your name have any significance?”_

_“My middle name as well. It’s after my great aunt Katherine. I don’t think Dana has any special significance, though.”_

_“It suits you.” He said, they both turned their attention back to the building. “Dana Katherine Scully. Beautiful.” He whispered to himself so softly, she barely heard it. Instead of addressing his admiration, she blushed slightly and let the silence engulf them while they continued their surveillance assignment._

“A family name.” She whispered to herself while rubbing her growing belly. 

“William.” she said in epiphany. Of course, no other name would suit their child better. A name with familial connections on both sides. While Mulder's relationship with his father was rocky and she never respected the way either of his parent’s treated him, she thought the name would be a perfect way to honour their child's ancestry. 

“What do you think? William?” She asked out loud to her child and to the fox. She felt a slight kick on her hand and gleeful yelp from the fox in approval. She laughed, with tears welling in her eyes. 

“Okay, okay. William it is.” She smiled, affectionately rubbing her hand over her stomach. 

\---  
She continued to visit the spot weekly. Her belly continuously grows, standing a little bit taller despite the extra weight. Each time she sat at the bench, the fox would join her. It became a comforting routine. She cherished their time together. The ache in her chest never ceased, but she appreciated the connection. The fox always sat stoically. Watching over her and comforting her. 

It wasn’t until three months after her first encounter that she noticed a change in the fox. Instead of his usual calm demeanor when she sat on the bench, he ran out of the bush with an exuberance she hadn’t seen before. Instead of sitting guardingly on the boulder, he nipped at flowers and jumped as if something had been awakened in him. She watched him in awe and confusion, unsure where the change had come from. 

It wasn’t until later that night when she received a call from Skinner telling her to come to the hospital that she started to connect the dots. The possibility that _her Fox_ was reawakening after being gone for so long was almost too much to bear. She drove to the hospital in a blur, rubbing her belly reassuringly, speaking words of comfort to herself, imagining that the fox was in her passenger seat the whole time. Ensuring she got there safely despite her shot nerves. 

It was too good to be true. Her Fox was finally returned. 

\---  
It was too good to be true and she was again alone. Well, not completely alone. She now had their child with her, but her Fox was gone again. Weekly, she walked to the Potomac river. Pushing her stroller to the bench she spent so much time, the possibility to catch a glimpse of a thoughtful fox. However, he never returns. 

Before her own Fox left, before she gave birth, they ventured to this same spot. Talking, holding hands, rebuilding their relationship. In all that time, she never saw the fox, however she didn’t look as hard. Her eyes unable to leave her love, miraculously brought back to her. 

Now though. Now she patrols the area looking for the fox. She is conflicted with what it would mean to see him again. Not seeing the fox gives her reassurance that her Fox is safe and alive. However, without the ability to communicate with him, she feels so lonely and guilty. Guilty for enjoying watching their child grow up without him. Guilty for sending him away after just getting him back. 

God, she missed him. 

So every day, she would visit the bench. Mostly hoping not to see the fox. Remembering what it was like before her life became so painful and bittersweet, telling William stories about a very sweet, brave Fox she knows. 

\---

Every day until life got worse. Without any other options, she chose a path of complete and utter loneliness. A life without any joy. A life where the pain in her chest was not just relentless, but a constant reminder of how badly she’s fucked this up. 

He’ll never forgive her. She doesn’t even forgive herself. 

For a while she does not return to the bench. Unable to leave her apartment. 

Her nipples still ache from phantom sucking. Her breasts are filled with useless milk. She springs into action when she hears a baby cry. But it’s all for nothing. Why walk the path when there is no stroller to push and no hand to hold. Why bother with anything at all? 

She stays home wallowing in her depression. Deeper than ever before. She feels as though there is nothing to bring her out of it. It’s been so long since she’s heard from him. She can’t begin to imagine how much he’ll hate her for what she’s done. 

_“You need to get out of your apartment. Get some fresh air, Dana.” Monica had told her over the phone._

_“What’s the point? It won't change anything.” She had replied._

_“I’m going to come over. Let’s go for a walk or something.” Monica said, sounding more worried than before._

_“No!” Scully replied quickly, unable to fathom the idea of spending time with somebody else at the moment. “No, you’re right. I need some fresh air. I’ll get out for a bit. I’ll call you if I need anything.”_

_“Okay, good. Please don’t hesitate, Dana.”_

She had hung up abruptly, unable to handle her sympathy. She didn’t deserve it after sending away the two loves of her life. At that moment she decided, for the first time in weeks, to return to the bench in the park. A painful reminder of everything she’s lost. 

As she approached the bench, she took a deep breath, already feeling overcome with emotions. She closed her eyes as she sat down. After a few steadying breaths, she finally opened her eyes again. As she took in her surroundings, she noticed the fox exit the bush as usual. Her eyes widened in shock. Instead of a calming presence or playful energy, he cowarded towards the boulder, seemingly unable to climb on it. He seemed afraid, as if sensing a threat. Before she knew it, he scurried back into the bush. She sat there shell-shocked. Her eyes filled with tears at the implications of this sign. She felt her heart plummet into her stomach. After a moment, she realized the ringing in her ears was coming from her phone. She took a deep calming breath, recognizing Skinner’s number. 

“Yes?” She rasped.

“Dana? It’s about Mulder. He’s back.” 

“ _Fox._ ” She gasped.

**Author's Note:**

> I know some people have an issue with them calling each other by their first names, but I feel like Home Again, canonised that she called him Fox at least sometimes. It's my headcanon that they called each other by their first names sometimes after they got together.   
> I would love any feedback you have!


End file.
